: Re: Is it worth spending money on a subsidy publisher? The boss owes me about 000, and is going to pay me in the coming months. I can live without this money for now, but I'm wondering

@Vandalay250

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There is nothing a subsidy publisher does that a local printer can't do at much lower cost. They won't edit your book (even real publishers barely do that these days). They won't check your facts. Unless you are a top-tier author, they won't even do any marketing for you!

I know one guy who was once a successful columnist for a men's magazine and whose previous book had been a New York Times bestseller. I met him at an author event, and he was looking for someone to do a Web site and some Internet marketing for his latest book. I got the gig because I had done a Web site for a friend of mine who was also an author at this event, and she sang my praises to the skies. He paid me for this out of his own pocket because his own publisher (one of the big ones, not some cash-strapped small press) was doing nothing at all to promote the book.

A publisher will, however, change your book's title, design a cover that has nothing to do with what's inside, try to tie it in to the latest publishing fad, and press you to turn it into a series.

It is easy to lay out a book (just look at a book, and make it like that). You can get a graphic design student from a local college to do your cover for you and help you with the insides. You can hire someone to edit your book and to fact-check it. And given that you've already done all that, local printer will make copies for you at a far lower cost than a vanity publisher.

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